Black Hills real estate in South Dakota......Not following the National Horror Stories

The Sky Is Not Falling, Chicken Little, Not Over the Black Hills in Real Estate.

By Duane Hosek, Realtor

You have been reading about it in the newspapers and magazines, you have heard about it on the radio and don't even get me started on all the TV programs and news channels that have been preaching about the doom and gloom in real estate that has hit our nation during the past year. Well, not in the Black Hills, thank you very much!

I blog with Realtors, mortgage brokers, bankers and financial gurus from all over the United States every week. They are so upset with the media for sensationalizing the fact that real estate markets are down in a few big cities in the U.S. with thousands of people losing their homes, mortgage companies closing, lenders going under and tens of thousands of foreclosures. What you are not hearing about are all the good, strong real estate markets, and there are hundreds of them, that don't make the kind of headlines that sell newspapers.

I would like to share some of the statistics from data gathered by the Black Hills Association of Realtors, of which I am proud to be a board member, and our Multiple Listing Service (MLS). These statistics cover the areas of Box Elder, Elk Creek, Nemo Road, Rapid City, Piedmont Valley, Black Hawk, Pine Grove, Rapid Valley, Rimrock Hwy. and Sheridan Lake Road. They cover the years 2006 and 2007.

Total number of residential homes sold in 2006 was 1,839 and in 2007 it was 1,782. This includes single family homes, new construction, manufactured homes, townhomes, condos and recreational properties. This represents a drop of about 3%. Not bad considering how some markets are down 15-30%. Total days on the market (the number of days between when a home was listed and when it sold) in 2006 was 71 days and in 2007 was 80. So as Realtors we sold 57 less homes in 2007 and it took us about 9 more days to sell them. Not exactly a distressed market!

Want some good news? If you were a seller you might be interested in knowing that for single family residential homes sold in 2006 the average price was $164,826 and in 2007 that number increased to $169,639. Even better news? In 2006 the average sold price of a new-construction home was $203,465 and in 2007 that increased to $209,058. Why is this good news? Because our real estate market is not falling to pieces. We do not have homes that are selling for half of what they are worth.

So please take with a grain of salt the horror stories you hear about our failing housing market nationwide. It is not affecting the vast majority of our nation and certainly has not hit us as hard here in the Black Hills as they would have you believe.

And remember, if you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

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